Yes, I am aware of the large, busy
Intel advertisements now
appearing at Ace's Hardware,
and yes, it pains me to see them. Certainly it becomes more difficult to
write objectively about those parties who are paying your bills. Intel, in
particular, is a company with no inhibitions about using its leverage to
manipulate a publication's viewpoint. For instance, I have written before
about how Intel opens and shuts off access to review hardware to guide
analysis in its favor.

===================================

Money

Money. I have seen how it
can corrupt. Growing up, I saw the people I love shot at, stabbed, their
houses burned and even some were killed, but I never saw the true depths that
the human soul could plummet to until I got into this business.

Lying, cheating, betrayal,
unbridled cupidity – constant treachery… why do some people behave this way in
the computer hardware review community? Partially because about two years ago
this was a golden industry. Sites were coming online only to be sold for tens
of millions of dollars a few months later. Also, the impact that some
hardware sites have made to multi-billion dollar companies is undeniable.
Taming hardware sites, transforming them into a form of influence peddling, could
be a high priority for those companies’ whose fortunes have been buffeted by
the occasionally critical review.

Especially in today’s lean
economy where ad revenue is meager, the dough is sometimes hard to pass up.

===================================

SharkyExtreme

A little known fact is that
SharkyExtreme, a once popular site, was a spin off of Tom's Hardware. In ignoble
fashion it broke away from THG
and only a few months later was parlayed to Internet.com for a sum that
entered the eight-digit range. The story behind SE is a clouded one -- THG did not profit -- but an
interesting character behind this incident -- and a figure difficult to ignore in the
hardware community -- is Larry Barber.

Mr. Barber ran the business
aspects of THG and his picture
can be seen on the back of the old Tom's
Hardware book. Although Tom claimed credit for helping out a
slighted Alex Ross by coming up with
SharkyExtreme (which was originally conceived as a gaming site to
compliment Tom’s Hardware) and
providing resources to get the site started, there was a falling out between
the two camps. This rift led to Mr. Barber's departure from THG and his taking over the
business side of SE. In a
matter of months, Larry Barber quickly maneuvered SharkyExtreme for the high-dollar
Internet.com acquisition.

===================================

The “Puppet
Master” and AnandTech

Made famous among the
hardware community for his ability to groom and peddle off SharkyExtreme so quickly and
profitably, Mr. Barber is sought after by those in the industry looking for
fortunes themselves. Having already “touched” two of the largest hardware
sites in the world, Mr. Barber has had at least one other high-profile win: AnandTech.

Mr. Barber could first be
seen hand-in-hand with Anand (and Anand's mother, who usually accompanied her
son on trips) at Computex nearly two years ago. Later, allegedly Mr.
Barber and his wife began running the business side of that site, but the
bottom fell out of the industry almost simultaneously, morbidly devaluing all
sites including AnandTech. A
site that might have been able to rake in more than $100 million in a buyout
only few months prior, it was now doubtful that AnandTech would have been able to
break $10 million making a buyout look much less attractive in the devalued
market.

Although Mr. Barber is
famous for his business acumen, his touch is also associated by many with the
strong Intel-leaning viewpoints that SharkyExtreme became famous for. Indeed,
"commercialization" is the word that first comes to minds of many who are
familiar with Mr. Barber. A few have even referred to him as the “Puppet
Master.”

How has Larry Barber's
influence impacted AnandTech?
It is impossible to be certain, but in addition to Intel advertisements that
have been running on that site now for months, AnandTech has been taking an
increasingly pro-Intel stance. In fact, the tone of their articles quite
closely mirrors the official lines coming from Intel's marketing machines.

This, as a trend, recalls the
last site Mr. Barber directed.

===================================

THG
and ExtremeTech

At one point THG was in discussions with ZDNN for a buyout with initial
figures over one-hundred-million dollars. This buyout fell through after I
left THG and ironically ZDNN themselves were acquired by
CNET.

Soon after quitting Tom's Hardware, I began working
for InQuest Market Research as a Senior Analyst. Almost immediately Bert
tried to convince me to write through InQuest for ExtremeTech, who had expressed
interest in publishing my articles. Familiar with my history, he
knew that I would not be receptive to this suggestion, but since he was paying
my bills I decided to conduct an experiment.

I wrote a very strongly
opinionated piece regarding the ACR versus CNR debate -- a simple cut-and-dry
issue involving riser card standards -- that necessarily would take a
condemning view of the Intel-backed CNR initiative. If ExtremeTech would bite on this
article, then it might be possible for me to write anything for them and not
have to worry about objectivity being undermined.

They didn't. After the
document bounced back and forth with directions each time to soften the
analysis, I was
eventually able to
convince Bert that any further edits would only serve to destroy the point of
the paper. Soon afterwards, Bert dropped the ExtremeTech issue. You can read
what remains of that analysis
here.

===================================

Ace's
and Rambus

For years, Ace’s Hardware has been one of my
favorite hardware sites. However, I have not always agreed with their
conclusions or methodologies.

For instance, I am not sure
what has driven Ace's Johan De
Gelas to be such a proponent of Rambus. His backing of the technology has led
to embarrassingly poor analysis and manifest errors. As an example, Johan
wrote conclusively that Rambus RDRAM was more bandwidth efficient than DDR
SDRAM. I informed him of his mistakes, but I do not think he ever recanted
his position even though it is now painfully clear to every informed observer
how short-sighted his pronouncements were. In fact, using his own
methodology, DDR-SDRAM is clearly superior to RDRAM as we, among others, have
shown.

Yes, money continues to be
in short supply in the industry. Times are still hard. But those in this
business need to ask themselves why they write.

With the apparent implosion
of ExtremeTech, which we have
been writing about over the last few weeks, some sites seem to be jockeying
for position to fill the void anticipated if this massive corporate intruder
disappears entirely. I suspect some sites are ready to suck up any available
ad revenue that might be freed if
ExtremeTech winks out.

Certainly the extreme
problems ET is suffering stand
as testimony to the inherent value of enthusiast sites, and how difficult --
if not impossible -- a corporate entity can mimic a traditional hardware
site. This should drive up the values of the traditional enthusiast sites.

===================================

But selling
out is not the answer

Hardware sites have become
so powerful and influential simply because their informed readers trust them
-- typically these sites are run by people very much like their own readers.
These readers – the movers and shakers of the industry, the decision makers in
IT departments, even other hardware site editors – are savvy. A
thoughtfully prepared article published on a trusted hardware site can move
these readers and have a top-down effect, rippling across vendors, impacting the entire
semiconductor industry.

But blowing smoke in their
readers'
faces will only cause the audience to go elsewhere.

Commercialization might
bring short-term rewards to those webmasters looking to get rich quick, but
inevitably those computer hardware sites who betray their readership by
peddling marketing strategies will fail. The readership is too smart, too
informed to be hoodwinked for long. Even the novices that frequent these
sites will slowly bleed off, led by the gurus in the community.

And if you want to make
money, just wait. As I stated several times in this article, hardware sites
have enormous influence and can make or break companies as big as Intel, AMD,
Rambus – anybody – just by being honest. The money will come back, simply
because the intrinsic value of quality hardware sites is so very high. Just
don't envision Rolexes, S-Class Mercedes, and
CaimanIsland getaways that some of the
weaker -- and certainly less liked – “role models” in our community brandished
about.

Yes, I am disappointed in
Ace's. It has been one of my favorite sites. I hope Brian and Johan
investigate alternative revenue channels, rather than suckle from the teat of
one of the most ruthless and manipulative companies in the world. After all,
there are more important things in life than money.